Page 21 of Auctioned to the Outlaw

“What are you doing?”

“Taking bets.”

“On my marriage?”

“Technically, your divorce.”

“Wyatt.”

“I’ve got three months, six months, nine months, and one optimistic idiot took forever.”

Dane signs the final document without looking up. “Who?”

“Me.” Wyatt grins. “I like an underdog.”

“I’m going to kill both of you.”

“Can’t,” Ellie says. “You’re married to the town’s designated murderer now. People will blame him.”

The joke lands badly.

Dane’s expression doesn’t change, but something in his shoulders does.

Before I can examine it, the courthouse door opens and two women from the diner walk in.

“Oh my God,” one says. “It’s true.”

I close my eyes.

By lunch, half of Devil’s Peak knows.

By one, someone posts our courthouse picture online with the headline:

Killer Miller Marries Girl Next Door Lila Dawson

Ten minutes later snow thickens as we climb into the mountains, covering the pines and narrowing the road until I’m gripping the door handle.

“You actually live out here?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“It’s quiet.”

“That’s because everyone else had the good sense to live near civilization.”

“You talk enough for both of us.”

I look at him. “Was that a joke?”

“No.”

“It was.”

“Wasn’t.”

“You’re getting funnier since we got married.”